Nostr notes by Thomas Strömberg

There aren't many times when my work feels like the Matrix; ...

2026-08-15T16:50:26Z

There aren't many times when my work feels like the Matrix; but flashing the SPI on this Honeycomb LX2 comes pretty close (imagine output like this streaming for 20 minutes).

In starting #Atomdrift - I've been driven by a single goal: ...

2026-08-07T17:45:11Z

In starting #Atomdrift - I've been driven by a single goal: reliably detect the next xzutils-style supply-chain attack, whether created by a human or AI. Our #Scan project was phase 1, and now we're looking for design partners for phase 2. If interested or just curious, DM me.

(Yes, this is a shitty LLM-generated image based on its design doc; plz roast)

As much as I dislike whoring myself out like this, I could use ...

2026-08-06T22:07:22Z

As much as I dislike whoring myself out like this, I could use some help!

#atomdrift just relocated from codeberg to github; so all of our "stars" reset. If you have a GitHub account, take a moment to star our project: https://github.com/atomdrift-project/scan - for better or worse, folks use stars to determine whether a project is worthwhile; this one certainly is.

I've been trying to stay quiet about it over vacation, but ...

2026-07-24T12:41:42Z

I've been trying to stay quiet about it over vacation, but I'm damned impressed with how #atomdrift is showing up in the malware detection charts. Nothing comes close to it for #supplychainsecurity. Have a question? Leave a comment.

Things are not looking so good for the Linux box that serves the ...

2026-07-06T07:06:47Z

Things are not looking so good for the Linux box that serves the #atomdrift API for serving, foraging, and generally managing sample files.

Definitely a shame to be 7000km away from the power button for the next 3 weeks, as it doesn't respond to soft reboot requests.

Kinda wish I'd gotten around to enabling remote ZFS snapshots before I left. 🤦

TFW when you need to quadruple the storage on your machines ...

2026-06-22T17:56:29Z

TFW when you need to quadruple the storage on your machines because your open-source project is finally successful.

On that note, https://lab.atomdrift.org/ will be down for the next couple of hours so I can upgrade our #OmniOS #PostGreSQL master & #FreeBSD frontend replica to 4TB of NVME so that the drive doesn't fill while I go on vacation.

Oof, that reminds me of having a discussion with Rapid7 when we ...

2026-06-09T21:40:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…th9h
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Oof, that reminds me of having a discussion with Rapid7 when we were SIEM searching.

At the time, their platform had bare-minimum built-in rules for macOS endpoints, so I figured we could just port them via Sigma - except they had some absurdly low limit like ~30 custom rules allowed.

I was told I could possibly get an exemption for ~70. Like, what in the actual fuck?

128 ARM64 cores {Altra Max}, 256GB of RAM, 24 hot-swappable NVME ...

2026-05-29T18:09:04Z

128 ARM64 cores {Altra Max}, 256GB of RAM, 24 hot-swappable NVME drives; definitely the craziest machine I've ever built. Holy hell, this one is fast #FreeBSD box though.

Why not just rent from the Cloud? After just 33.8 days, the hardware pays for itself versus the equivalent from GCP. That's insane.

Beware of geeks bearing gifts; or in this case, npm packages ...

2026-05-25T16:36:02Z

Beware of geeks bearing gifts; or in this case, npm packages containing reverse-shells (system-user-identifier-cli). It's an trivial find, but a decent demo to show how our open-source detection factory is coming along: https://atomdrift.org/discoveries/2026/05/system-user-identifier-cli/

One of the biggest component upgrades I've ever done: from a ...

2026-03-10T21:19:50Z

One of the biggest component upgrades I've ever done: from a 4GB GPU to 96GB. It feels weird to hook such an overpowered beast to a JetKVM rather than a monitor.

Just curious? What did you hit? I'm of the opposite opinion ...

2025-11-02T01:25:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…04ka
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Just curious? What did you hit?

I'm of the opposite opinion at home - I'd rather not have the complexity of keeping their admin interfaces secure (no code to patch; no code to maintain) - I'd adwittedly feel differently in a professional context.

The recent NPM compromise highlights a frustrating reality: the ...

2025-09-15T15:15:53Z

The recent NPM compromise highlights a frustrating reality: the security tools exist, but nobody uses them.

I had planned to keep my mouth shut about the affair, but someone DM'd me to ask if the supply-chain attack detection tools I created and open-sourced while at #Chainguard would have caught the attack. Yes—both malcontent and ucd detected it; the latter with surprising precision. [1/3]

It probably won't help you, but it's worth knowing that ...

2025-07-24T22:31:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…uexn
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It probably won't help you, but it's worth knowing that https://github.com/rusq/slackdump exists. :)

After two weeks of non-stop #AI usage to get my startup off the ...

2025-07-16T01:10:44Z

After two weeks of non-stop #AI usage to get my startup off the ground, I'm finally starting to see the cracks in the facade.

It's been great for rapid prototyping in a way that doesn't irritate my osteoarthritis, but asking LLMs to maintain complex state machines is like asking a toddler to clean the house. Both take forever to get anything done, but with AI, entire rooms may suddenly disappear just because you asked it to put away the laundry.

That feeling when your employer decides to pay another company to ...

2025-05-13T17:34:16Z

That feeling when your employer decides to pay another company to maintain an OSS tool you donated to them and were subsequently banned from contributing to. Ugh.

I hope I can find it a nice home.

Step 1 in my my bee-inspired home office rennovation. ...

2025-04-23T16:42:55Z

Step 1 in my my bee-inspired home office rennovation.

Coaxing Gemini into emulating BeOS is like dragging a cat around ...

2025-03-14T01:08:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…vp4g
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Coaxing Gemini into emulating BeOS is like dragging a cat around the neighborhood. It really really doesn't want to. As soon as you get it to realistically emulate one command, another mysteriously breaks.

For reasons that defy explanation, I placed another weird ...

2025-03-13T22:07:36Z

For reasons that defy explanation, I placed another weird artifact on the Internet (try it! there is no ssh password).

While battling RF noise for my new #hamradio shack - I learned ...

2025-03-10T14:35:55Z

While battling RF noise for my new #hamradio shack - I learned more about RF interference than I will ever retain: http://k9yc.com/RFI-Ham.pdf

If nothing else, it helped me to understand the necessity of a common ground and why you probably shouldn’t place a transceiver against an Ethernet switch.