I’m working on the next hacklore newsletter, and the holiday season delivered a fresh wave of peak hacklore! 🎁 😜

📬 If you want fewer security myths and more reality-based advice for everyday people (including ways for you to help!), subscribe here: https://www.hacklore.org/about

Commodore Disk Drive Becomes General Purpose Computer

https://hackaday.com/2026/01/05/commodore-disk-drive-becomes-general-purpose-computer/

@mwichary They present technology as an instrument for art, and you get to play with literally everything (we spent the open hours in full then went back the next day for more). On the flip-side the items are not very well documented, so you often stop to scratch your head what a thing actually is - they are really helpful though and I think this also adds to the "magic" of the place.

@mwichary My recommendation: https://this-museum-is-not-obsolete.com/

Not a typical a museum, more like a playground for geeks :)

I wrote a photo essay with 20+ of my favourite tech museums in the world, and tried to figure out what makes a great museum in the process.

I am very curious what tech museums you like – and why!

(Will work on any device, but worth checking out on the biggest screen you or your neighbour might have.)

https://aresluna.org/fav-tech-museums/

Decorative Cryptography

https://www.dlp.rip/decorative-cryptography

"All encryption is end-to-end, if you’re not picky about the ends."

@schrotthaufen I certainly argued with very intelligent people about this...

@mdfranz "When API’s go away, and it’s all a federated MCP mesh." This must be one of those people who - despite working in IT - has always thought of APIs as some magical thing beyond human comprehension, but fortunately MCPs will now finally make everything clear and simple!

"The purpose of a system is what it does"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does

This is exactly what I've been trying to articulate re: cookie banners. The word of the regulation and intent is largely irrelevant to the effect it caused.

... the README says "the most useful feature is X". I try X, absolute garbage. I look at the code of X: the only relevant piece of data is simply not included anywhere in the computation. ffs

(no I won't open an Issue/PR, let them figure out themselves...)

Kagi's Small Web initiative and why we're committed to it:

#Kagi #Search #SmallWeb

GitHub Disables Rockchip’s Linux MPP Repository After DMCA Request

https://hackaday.com/2026/01/05/github-disables-rockchips-linux-mpp-repository-after-dmca-request/

"Die Zeit" reveals that German foreign intelligence, in a multi-year campaign, intercepted Barack Obama's phone calls while aboard Air Force One because the encryption was flawed. Angela Merkel didn't know about it.

https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2026-01/bnd-barack-obama-air-force-one-angela-merkel

A Glimpse Into DexProtector
https://www.romainthomas.fr/post/26-01-dexprotector/

@troed I guess it's fine for ad-hoc tools, but I'm looking at code with many stars on GH rn. It works. Sometimes it freezes. Everything is redundant, identifiers don't describe actual purpose but something else, functions are prohibitively large. No one will be willing or able to maintain this shit for more than 6 months.

The general code quality of hacking tools has always been shit. Thanks to LLMs now it's somewhat worse.

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

#HitchhikersGuide #DouglasAdams #quotes #quote #bot

POC2025 videos are up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eem7AVAMpI&list=PLHu2EA4lxh3Yvaa5sr9TYM3ywzGFBbpR8

This is my every-once-in-awhile post since I’m thinking about it today: if you have a lead on install media, an image of a dev/test system, etc. for the Dynix ILS (from the 1980s/90s), please reach out. No, it’s not on Internet Archive despite some things saying it is.

Anna’s Archive Loses .Org Domain After Surprise Suspension https://torrentfreak.com/annas-archive-loses-org-domain-after-surprise-suspension/